Sick Baby, Fungus on Walls, No Gas, No Drinking Water: Awesome Morning.

I just returned home on Saturday afternoon after a full week of work, a crazy overnight of travel and a 3-hour car ride which included a funeral procession for 4.5 miles to an even bigger and more exciting weekend of issues.

For starters, when Kurt and Iza greeted me at the dock I quickly realized how bad Iza really was. She had lost about 5lbs since I left. She was pale, almost green and definitely not herself. She had a fever of 102+ and wasn’t eating anything. When we got up our trail to the house I looked around with fresh eyes…. there was this weird wall mold/fungus coming off all the walls. Kurt went to take a shower but the water was freezing, so we pretty much went right to bed to make sure we could get some sleep. In the morning I went to make tea and the stove wouldn’t turn on. The drinking water was kicked, so I just started to cry. Pretty pathetic, but I had almost hit the end of my rope – baby crying, exhausted from travel, thirsty, throat closing in… recipe for disaster.

After Iza woke we decided very quickly that she was sick enough for the Hospital. I went online to research and found a great hospital on the other side of the lake in Santiago. The number on the site listed an American number so I called it and Dr. Larry answered in Maine. He was home, but he frequents Santiago as it is a hospital he founded. So, with his advice we went.

We first went to Pana where I had an absolute meltdown and cost us an extra 2-hours in my mania. When we got to Santiago it was nearly 1pm and our Tuk Tuk driver asked us if we wanted him to wait. We said, “no” (although we should have said, “yes”). After walking up the walkway we kind of realized we were absolutely in the middle of no where. Walking up to the door it was was locked to the Emergency Room and immediately we got discouraged, but we didn’t really know what else to do, so we waited.

Shortly a nurse showed up at the door. She welcomed us and opened the door, showing us to the infirmary to Bed 3. There were 4 beds. (I am familiar with an infirmary from High School at Mercersburg. When you got sick you were sent to the infirmary where you had to be in a shared bed space which is far too similar to an army infirmary… totally depressing. You can just imagine 35 sick soldiers lined up on either side of the room. I think I went to the infirmary 2x in the 4 years I was there and 1x was to say goodbye to a friend who got kicked out for smoking pot.) Around us were a series of American-style equipment and books. Lots of tools and familiar mechanisms. I have to say… definitely a sign of relief from us both. The doctor spoke very very little English, but he had some  Tz’utujil and Kaqchikel which are Mayan languages as well as fluent Spanish. Needless to say, we made do. We had to.

It turns out, after nearly 5 seconds of testing that Iza has an ear infection. So ridiculous that this had gone on for nearly 8 days at this point. Completely unnecessary. We got medicine and we were on our way. Of course we were in the middle of no where, so we grabbed the first Chicken Bus we found and headed into town.

1 issue down… like a MILLION to go. Stay tuned.

On the Chicken Bus to San Lucas

The buses resemble a semi-truck with spiked wheels and Harley Davidson branding. They are a step up from Chicken Busses, but still have similar purposes. This morning we set out for an adventure seeking a TIGO stick (wifi card) which we have been told are out of stock in the whole country of Guatemala. The place we were headed was Centre Commercial Las Puertos which is in San Lucas (on the way to Guatemala).

So, here we are on the bus, ready to leave on the adventure and the bus is full (or so we thought), with each seat taken by two. Then we leave the “station” and head out through Antigua and we stop 4 more times before we exit through the village. Now we were definitely full (or so we thought), with 3 people to every seat. As we start out heading towards Guatemala City we stopped another 10 or so times with people trading in and out of the bus. At the max capacity there were people sitting on each others laps and people standing in the nonexistent aisles. Sometimes the bus hardly stopped when it picked up someone… it kind of slowed and then all of a sudden there was someone new on the bus.

This wouldn’t have been so bad, but with a baby it totally sucked. Iza was having a meltdown and trying to nurse the entire time which made it so much worse. My nipples are in shambles. But when she looked up, she was having a full on fiesta by herself. The music matched her spirit with a Mexican band on the radio blaring the entire time. Kurt even noted that at the beginning of the drive the music got turned up.

This was not just a simple drive! It was a winding and elevation changing ride with lots of twists and turns leading to the entire bus shifting and all of us with it from one side to the next. Hysterically awful – so awful it actually was funny.

We figured out we missed our exit when we ended up in Guatemala City traffic. A full hour instead of the estimated 25 minutes we were told. We get to another mall Milefloris and jumped off… a little nervous to do so, but definitely knew we couldn’t wait to get to the center of Guatemala City before jumping off. This mall was certainly sorted and it looked like King of Prussia. By this point Kurt and I were hungry, thirsty and bitchy. Iza was flailing her arms so you can imagine she was definitely not a happy camper. We walked around for a minute a Kurt said, “Let’s go.” I insisted we stay and we ended up finding a TIGO shop and then a few kiosks. Everyone said we were ‘Shit out of Luck’ regarding the stick.

We hit a taxi defeated (only after a lovely juice break at Saul – a UK clothier in Guatemala), but wanting to still get to San Lucas to carry out the remaining components of the journey. We went to the taxi stand at this very high-end mall and for Q.130 ($15) we got to the next mall. So much for our saving money. The bus to the mall was Q.20 for both of us! (like $1.50). Ha.

We get to the Mall in San Lucas and head into the shop. We wait forever and ended up seeing the lady and she says they don’t have any either. That the whole country is out. Awesome. I am starving by this point and had really lost interest in the whole experience. We went to the grocer around the corner and got avos and chips. As we walk out the door we both looked at each other and said, “How do we get back?” There was not a single taxi in sight and we were on a massive road. A little scary. Two drivers honked at us and just past an antique shop this guy was kind enough to show us the right direction to the waiting area (only 200 yards away so we were excited). We got to the place and a bus arrived. We hoped on.

The bus was already packed and so while I was offered a seat, I chose to stand and hold Iza. Truthfully the idea of not having something to hold onto again and trying to accomplish sitting in the least conducive environment to doing so, did not feel appealing. So, I stood. We got back in expert fashion in under 15 minutes and we were happily ready to retire from our Chicken Bus journey.

All we got in 4 hours of our journey were avocados and chips. Hardly worth the adventure, but the experience is of course priceless.